


I can't wait to know... what do you think about things?

by eleventhousandstars



Series: Emma's Juliantina Appreciation Week #2 [1]
Category: Amar a Muerte (TV), Juliantina - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Babies, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Juliantina
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24135619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eleventhousandstars/pseuds/eleventhousandstars
Summary: Juliana is really REALLY good at looking after kids, as demonstrated when she looks after Eva and Mateo’s daughter.
Relationships: Eva Carvajal & Valentina Carvajal, Valentina Carvajal & Juliana Valdés, Valentina Carvajal/Juliana Valdés
Series: Emma's Juliantina Appreciation Week #2 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742257
Comments: 16
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Juliantina Appreciation Week #2!  
> Day 1 - Headcanons
> 
> My headcanon is that Juliana is great at looking after kids, and while this started out as writing about Juliana with kids more generally, it ended up mostly being about Juliana’s relationship with Eva and Eva’s daughter, Elena. 
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think! :)

......

“And then you gently lift up her legs and slide the new diaper under their bum.” Juliana explained, delivering a masterclass on diaper changing to her girlfriend now they were both aunties. “Put her legs down again and do up the tabs… get her dressed again, throw away the old stinky one and done!”

“I have to say, Juliana, I am impressed.” Mateo said.

“Thanks, Mateo.” Juliana smiled back. She placed a kiss onto Elena’s tummy and then picked her up off the changing table and handed her back to her father. “My work here is done!”

“How did you get so good at that?” Valentina asked, following her girlfriend through to the bathroom and looking on curiously from the doorway as Juliana washed her hands.

Juliana shrugged, “There were always loads of kids on the trailer park in San Antonio, and my mom used to help look after them, sometimes for a bit of extra cash, sometimes for free.” She explained. She reached for the towel and dried her hands. “And babies are fun, I used to like looking after them too, and so my mom taught me the basics.”

Juliana purposefully didn’t mention how she would like it when her mom was babysitting a baby because it meant that when Chino came home drunk, he couldn’t shout at them or get violent when there was another person’s kid around. Babies for her, in an odd way, protected her from abuse, so she liked them for that reason. It was an added bonus if they happened to be cute.

“Babies are fun, Juliana…” Mateo replied from behind them. “Until you are woken up several times during the night by a screaming monster.”

Valentina smiled as Mateo leaned in close to his two-week old daughter and whispered, “Are you a screaming monster?!”

“Yeah, that’s something I’ve been lucky enough to avoid experiencing.” Juliana admitted.

She followed the others through to the living room and sat down on the couch while Mateo and Valentina sat down on the carpeted floor with Elena on a playmat. Valentina started waving a pink elephant about in the air while Juliana looked on and smiled. They had met Elena three times now, and she already knew she was going to love hanging out with Elena with her girlfriend.

Mateo looked up at Juliana before glancing back to his sister-in-law.

“Valentina, are you going to tell your girlfriend that you’ve already offered your babysitting services to me?” Mateo asked. “How soon is too soon for Juliana to experience her first night of horror?”

Valentina held up a wagging finger in protest.

“That offer did not include overnight services!” She laughed.

“How much were you planning for us to charge an hour, Val?” Juliana joked. “This could be a real business opportunity!”

Mateo shook his head, “In Valentina’s offer, there was nothing about money, I told her loud and clear that your efforts would be rewarded by a fridge full of food and a Netflix subscription!” Mateo replied. “Both of which you can put to good use during the maybe ten minutes of peace you’ll get when Elena isn’t crying or wanting any other sort of attention.”

“Great offer, thanks Mateo.” Valentina replied with a sigh, though really everyone knew she wanted to look after Elena as soon as she could and would happily do it for no reward whatsoever.

“But maybe after your girlfriend’s performance with changing a diaper today, I should have to pay you.” Mateo said, before turning to look at Juliana. “How good are you at preparing a baby’s bottle?”

“Do you want me to show you how good I am?” Juliana asked with a grin.

She couldn’t help getting a little cocky with her answer. The babies of a certain trailer park in San Antonio practically grew up on the bottles of baby formula prepared for them by Juliana Valdes. So much so that Juliana sometimes wondered how they were coping without her services. Their moms were always out working as they tried to earn money and occasionally they were absent all together, so feeding a baby was something Juliana did often when Lupe babysat them. And preparing the bottle was a job Lupe could get her daughter to do while she attended to the crying baby and Juliana liked doing it. The task had several steps and the process felt therapeutic because she had done it so often – sterilise the cup, warm the water, add the correct amount of formula, shake up the mixture, wait for it to cool down and hand it to her mom to feed the crying baby. Simple.

“Val?” Mateo asked. Valentina looked up from the pink elephant she was holding. “I think your girlfriend is going to teach you another important lesson about looking after your niece.”

Groaning, Valentina let a still smiling Juliana pull her up off the floor and drag her into the kitchen. Why did she have to learn everything about looking after Elena when her girlfriend was already so good at it?

But the same thing happened to her as when Juliana taught her about changing a diaper, Valentina became absorbed in the way Juliana’s previously hidden expertise in the subject matter was suddenly brought to the surface. As well as knowing a lot about babies and how to look after them, Juliana was also an excellent teacher. Learning to dance, changing a diaper, preparing a baby’s bottle, Juliana could teach her something new any day of the year.

.......


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juliana looks after Elena on the day of Eva's sentencing.

........

“Fuck!”

Juliana frowned as she finishes up the last few mouthfuls of her breakfast. Valentina wasn’t one to swear often. But this was an abnormal day. The long awaited day of Eva’s sentencing was finally here, which meant Juliana could forgive her girlfriend’s swearing as she talked on the phone to someone.

From what Juliana could gather, it was a member of Valentina’s family, so either Guille or her dad or maybe Mateo, and something had gone wrong with their plans for this very important day. Juliana’s imagination ran wild. Did the media find out something else damning about Eva Carvajal? Was it something to do with Eva? Was she okay? Did something happen to her in prison? Was the sentencing even going to go ahead today?

Juliana was startled when she heard her own name being said.

“Juliana, yeah Juliana...” Valentina said to the mystery person on the other end of the phone. “Let me ask her, give me five minutes and I’ll call you back?”

Valentina promptly put the phone down. She paced over to her very confused girlfriend.

“That was Mateo.” She explained, to which Juliana nodded in understanding. “The babysitter cancelled, it’s too late to find another one…” Juliana understood where this was going before Valentina even said the words. “I know you have school today and you don’t want to miss class, but is there any chance at all that you could look after Elena today?”

Juliana didn’t respond immediately. Valentina was right, she had school today and she didn’t want to miss it. She had just started her second year, and she hadn’t missed a class since she started, earning herself top marks, lots of praise, and plenty of opportunities, including an elusive chance to have her own fashion show at the end of this year, provided everything went well. She didn’t want to screw anything up at this stage and missing even a day of fashion school was certainly not on her agenda.

But this would be her first ever absence. She hadn’t missed even one class for any reason, even when she had a particularly bad period one day and was bowled over in pain on the bus home, she hadn’t wanted to miss class that day and had insisted on going in, even after Valentina protested. It would be her first ever absence, true, but it would also mean her teachers would probably be more forgiving of her.

And when she looked up and met her girlfriend’s waiting, hopeful eyes, Juliana reasoned this was as good a reason as any to miss fashion school for the first time.

“I’ll do it.”

Valentina almost jumped into Juliana’s arms.

“I love you so much!” She exclaimed happily. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

She kissed Juliana a few times before the younger girl pulled back.

“You call Mateo back.” Juliana said. “I need to go to email my teachers.” She looked down at what she was wearing and realised she still needed to get dressed. “And also shower.”

She wasn’t due into class until 11, but she figured that Mateo would want to bring Elena round to theirs as soon as possible because the court started at 10am. Valentina was already wearing a dress and blazer for the occasion.

Valentina nodded. The seriousness of the day had caught up with her again and as she stood up again to let her girlfriend go, she straightened out her outfit.

Juliana showered and dressed herself as quickly as she could, and knowing what babies were like, she opted for casual clothes she knew might get messed up again before it was even time for lunch. She turned on the laptop as she blow-dried her hair. She could hear Valentina pacing in the other room as she opened up her email and got ready to explain her absence to her university. Her fingers paused over the keyboard. She had absolutely no idea how to phrase it.

She knew that Rafaela would understand the situation seeing as she was Valentina’s godmother. But Rafaela was the head of the school and Juliana only saw her occasionally, usually when she popped by the studio to say hi to everyone when they were all working on a project. Instead she attended classes with a variety of different teachers. 

She typed out the message in her head and realised that it sounded ridiculous every way she worded it.

_____

_Hi there,_

_My girlfriend’s sister (you might recognise her name – Eva Carvajal) is finding out how long she’s going to have to go to prison for today. She got involved with the narcos in all sorts of dodgy dealings with them including a love affair with one of them and got pregnant, and nope, we still don’t know who the father is. But the narco she had the affair with is dead and she and her husband are still together, and he is graciously raising the baby no matter who the true father is, he’s named on the birth certificate and everything. And yes, you probably remember hearing about that happening over a year ago, but the courts and the prison system take time to sort things out, that’s why she’s only just getting sentenced today and yet her pregnancy is now an actual baby._

_Anyway, that’s where I come in. You see, my girlfriend and her sister’s husband and everyone else in the Carvajal family obviously want to be there to find out how many years Eva will be stuck behind bars for. They didn’t want to take the baby with them for obvious reason, so, a babysitter was hired. Except then they cancelled last minute and now it’s too last minute to get a replacement babysitter. So, my girlfriend offered my services as I am literally one of the only people who definitely doesn’t want to be at the court today. I had class today anyway. My girlfriend knew I had classes today too, but she offered my services, and how could I say no? I love the baby, she’s very cute, and it’s the least I can do for my girlfriend who’s very stressed out about today anyway and it doesn’t help that the babysitter pulled out at the last moment._

_To summarise, dear teacher, I’m so sorry that I have to miss class today, but I send my deepest apologies and I hope you understand why._

_I will be sure to be back in class tomorrow, but please send me the work I will have missed?_

_Kind regards,_

_Juliana Valdes_

_______

Juliana leant back in her seat and sighed as she re-read what she had written. It didn’t sound right and so she deleted everything. Her story sounded like a ridiculous plotline in a telenovela rather than her actual life and a valid excuse to miss class. She wondered if she had sent it, would her teachers even believe her story?

Instead, she decided to keep things short and simple.

_____

_Hello,_

_Apologies, but due to a family emergency, I will be absent from class today._

_I will be back in class tomorrow, but in the meantime, please could you forward me the work I will have missed today?_

_Kind regards,_

_Juliana Valdes._

_______

The moment Juliana hit send, she heard her girlfriend call for her.

“Juls!” Valentina shouted. “Mateo is here!”

Juliana pushed herself away from her desk and ran towards the door to greet Mateo. He was dressed smartly but Juliana could see the stress of the upcoming day was getting to him, the worry lines ever present on his face. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and Juliana wondered whether that was because of the baby or because of today. Probably both.

He offered Juliana a small smile as he stepped inside the door. He was carrying a car seat and gently put in down on the floor. Little Elena was safely tucked away and sound asleep.

“Thank you, Juliana.” He said, kissing Juliana on the cheek in greeting. “I honestly don’t know what I would have done without you.”

“It’s no problem.” She replied, before turning to the little bundle blissfully unaware of everything that was happened. “I just hope this one is good for me.”

“She’s been ok this morning, actually.” Mateo replied nervously. “So, fingers crossed she should be well behaved.”

“We will have fun whatever.” Juliana enthused.

“Are you going to be okay?” Valentina asked.

Juliana turned to her girlfriend and smiled reassuringly. She didn’t know who was more nervous for Juliana’s babysitting adventures, Valentina or Mateo.

“I’ll be fine.” She nodded, saying that mantra to herself as much as anyone else. She was nervous herself but tried to keep her cool, this day was stressful enough without babysitting dramas. “I can always call my mom for help if I need it.”

Both Valentina and Mateo seemed happy with Juliana’s cautiously confident reply. The next ten minutes were spent with Mateo frantically explaining everything to Juliana she could possibly need or want to know about looking after Elena. She had looked after her before, and she loved looking after Elena, but usually Valentina was at her side the whole time and Mateo was no further away than the other room. Despite impressing Mateo with her babysitting skills early on, they still hadn’t ever babysat Elena all on their own before. But there’s no time like the present, and Juliana was determined to show both Mateo and Valentina she could handle it.

Though he provided Juliana the names and contact of a paediatrician for use in an emergency, Juliana felt rather alone when she remembered the fact that neither Valentina or Mateo would be allowed their phones in the courtroom. If she had even the simplest question or concern for them, she would have to deal with it without their help. Luckily, she had warned her mom about the situation, and Lupe had told her she was at work until 3pm but could call her at any point if she needed any assistance.

The nervousness built up in Juliana as Mateo ran through everything. As Juliana listened carefully to everything he said, Mateo seemed to relax as he remembered how good Juliana was at changing diapers and feeding babies, and his nervousness calmed down.

Juliana tried to instil his confidence when Valentina suddenly looked at her watch and announced that they needed to leave.

A kiss on her cheek for her girlfriend, and Valentina was heading out the door behind Mateo. The door clicked shut and Juliana looked down at the still sleeping Elena.

“Right kid.” She whispered. “It’s just you and me now.”

Five hours later and all had gone well so far. As she expected, Juliana had to change her shirt twice due to all sorts of spillages onto it, but apart from that, they didn’t experience any other hiccups. Elena was still so young that she didn’t do anything much apart from eat, sleep and poop, and so Juliana found the day passed quickly without any incidents.

That was until exactly 3pm, when Elena, out of nowhere, started crying her eyes out.

“Noooo, baby, what’s wrong?” Juliana cooed as she stood up and started bouncing around as she paced the room.

She couldn’t work out what had happened. Elena had woken from a nap, Juliana had changed her and fed her before laying her down on the floor and entertaining her with a wooden maraca. Therefore, she didn’t need feeding, didn’t need changing, and didn’t need a nap either. And yet, something was clearly bothering her immensely.

A part of her thought maybe the baby could sense that Eva had just been sentenced. Juliana knew it was due around this time of day. But Juliana shook that thought from her mind. Elena couldn’t sense that. That would be stupid.

A few minutes later, Elena calmed down again and Juliana let out a sigh of relief.

A few minutes after that, Juliana’s phone buzzed. It was her girlfriend.

_**\- 15 years ☹☹** _

Juliana was just processing that amount of time when her phone vibrated again.

_- **Her lawyers say that because of the time she’s already served and with good behaviour, she should be eligible for release in eight years.**_

Juliana frowned.

Eight years.

8 years.

It was better than 15 years, but no matter how she phrased it in her head, eight years was still a damn long amount of time.

Juliana’s phone vibrated again. But this time it wasn’t from her girlfriend, it was a news alert.

\- _**Eva Carvajal, eldest child of media mogul Leon Carvajal, sentenced to 15 years in prison. READ MORE HERE.**_

Juliana was a second away from clicking on the notification until a baby started crying in her arms again. Juliana immediately threw her phone down on the couch in disgust. Towards Eva’s sentencing and towards the fact that she was tempted to read gossip about the mother of the baby in her arms.

The situation was dreadful. It was almost more agonising thinking about Elena then it was Eva. Eva herself would do her time; she would be approaching 40 years old by the time she would be released. Sad, but not tragic. The fact that she would have to watch her daughter grow up from the other side of prison walls and through infrequent visits would be absolutely torturous.

As she tried to distract Elena from her cries, Juliana vowed to help the situation in any way that she could. She vowed to make sure the girl would never forget who her mother was. She vowed to remind her all the time that her mother loved and cared for her and wished she could be by her side. She also vowed to take Elena to see Eva as much as was feasible.

And, if Elena was going to miss out on a mom beside her all the time for the first eight years of her life, Juliana vowed to be the best aunt ever to her niece.

At some point later that evening, with Elena safely back home with her father and Valentina back in their apartment, Juliana went to the toilet and didn’t reappear for twenty minutes.

Valentina arched an eyebrow up at her girlfriend when Juliana sauntered back towards her on the couch.

“I was just starting to get worried.”

Juliana couldn’t help but to smile.

“Do you know how good it just felt to sit on the toilet and play on my phone and not worry about tending to a baby?”

Valentina smiled and then frowned.

“I missed you though.”

“I missed you too.” Juliana confessed.

Valentina leant forward and kissed Juliana gently. She pulled back but the younger girl didn’t let her go far and instead shuffled closer. They continued to kiss and kiss and kiss. The kisses got sloppier and sloppier, messier and messier, and soon they were laughing and rolling around with each other on the couch.

One thing led to another and before they knew it, Netflix was asking them ‘Are you still there?’ and Valentina was rapidly pulling her girlfriend down the corridor to their bedroom.

The sex they had that night reminded Juliana that the drama Valentina Carvajal brought into her life was totally worth the effort.

Valentina rolled them over in bed and told Juliana that she couldn’t talk – she was the daughter of a hitman. After that, Juliana didn’t hold back with being a little rough in bed, and Valentina loved every second.

.........


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valentina and Juliana take Elena to visit Eva in prison.

......

“Hi Eva!”

Valentina waved as they entered the prison’s visitor’s room and Eva stood up from behind the glass partition.

“Hi baby!” Eva cooed, her greeting entirely directed toward her daughter being carried in Juliana’s arms rather than responding to her sister.

Juliana immediately brought Elena up close to the glass screen to be as close to Eva as possible.

“Are you gonna say hi to Mommy?” Juliana asked in a silly voice, before lifting up Elena’s hand and waving it towards Eva and imitating her niece’s voice, “Hi Mommy! I’ve missed you!”

Eva laughed at Juliana’s attempts to get her daughter to wave. Elena had just celebrated her first birthday, and although she was still too young to understand exactly what was going on, thanks to the efforts made by Mateo and Valentina and the rest of the family to ensure Elena didn’t forget who her mom was, Elena recognised the person behind the glass.

She made some noises as she planted her chubby hands all over the glass in an effort to reach Eva. She quickly caught on the fact that there was no way through the glass but seemed happy enough to watch her mom from the other side, especially when Eva started making funny faces.

Both Juliana and Valentina also giggled at Eva as they sat down on plastic chairs next to each other. Before long, Elena got bored with that game, and wriggled in Juliana’s arms to get free from her clutches. Juliana placed her down at her feet and looked up just as Valentina and Eva greeted each other properly.

“How are you?” Valentina asked.

As she heard Eva reply, Juliana felt hands tapping on her leg. She glanced down to see Elena waiting with raised arms, obviously wanting to be back in the safety of Juliana’s clutches almost as quickly as she had left. Juliana didn’t blame her. The environment of the prison also scared her, and she was a visitor not an inmate. She quickly hoisted Elena onto her knee and placed her on her lap so she could see her mom. For the next few minutes, Elena sat quietly, fascinated as she watched Valentina and Juliana have a conversation with her mom on the other side of some glass.

“Mateo says she should be talking soon.” Eva commented.

Valentina nodded enthusiastically and reached out to tousle Elena’s hair. The youngster giggled at the touch.

“I think so too.” Valentina replied. “Mateo claims he can understand what she’s saying, but I can’t.”

“I can’t either.” Juliana admitted as she started bobbing her leg up and down while putting her arms around Elena to make sure she didn’t fall off her lap. “I mean, she probably is saying something, but I have absolutely no idea what she’s trying to say.”

It was like Elena was listening to their conversation, because at that exact moment, she lifted up her arms and babbled something loudly. None of them could understand what she was saying, but Eva still nodded in agreement as she moved as close to the glass and she could get.

“I know, baby, I know!” Eva said, before glancing up at Valentina and Juliana. “She does seem a lot more vocal than she was last week.”

“Did you know that Juliana wants to be the favourite aunt and is trying to get her to say her name first instead of mine.” Valentina revealed.

This prompted Juliana to lightly hit Valentina in the arm in protest.

“Val!”

“It’s the truth.” Valentina replied, trying to defend her position.

_Ok, but you don’t need to admit that to your sister!_ Juliana wanted to say. Instead, she shook her head and stayed quiet.

Eva could only laugh at their bickering.

“Just as long as she says Mommy and Daddy before she says either of your names and I’ll be happy.” Eva confessed.

Juliana smiled to herself and then moved closer to the glass partition.

“Don’t worry, Eva…” Juliana replied, dropping her voice low. “Every two seconds, Val is showing her a picture of you and saying the word ‘Mommy’!”

Now it was Valentina’s turn to be annoyed at her girlfriend. Yes, she had been doing that, but she didn’t want Eva to know exactly how hard she was trying to make sure Elena never forgot who her mom was. But Valentina relaxed again when she saw how happy Eva was at Juliana’s admittance. She quickly forgot about being annoyed at her girlfriend, and instead bent down and moved close to her niece’s face.

“Elena…” Valentina started, before pointing at Eva. “Is that your Mommy?”

Elena made some noises to acknowledge what Valentina was saying, and Valentina lent back again with an expression of victory plastered all over her face.

“See!” Valentina said happily. “I’ve been working hard on it.”

Both Eva and Juliana smiled. Valentina was the soppiest aunt ever sometimes.

Elena started fussing in Juliana’s arms. At this point, Juliana would grab hold of the nearest baby toy or maybe take out her phone to distract Elena, but they weren’t allowed to bring their phones in to the visitor’s room and she didn’t have a baby toy to hand, so Juliana had to come up with a creative way to provide stimulation for Elena. She quickly turned a wriggling Elena around on her lap to face her, grabbed her necklace and waved in front of Elena’s face. Any child that age would immediately be excited by getting invited to play with a bright, shiny thing, and Elena was no different, reaching out to grab it with greedy eyes and chubby fingers.

Juliana laughed as she tried to avoid getting strangled by her niece. There were worse ways to go but she quickly looped the necklace over her head and handed it to the little girl. Elena immediately put it in her mouth and started chewing on it, but Juliana wasn’t worried, it was too big for her to swallow.

“Careful Juliana, I don’t want her to break your necklace.” Eva warned.

“I actually bought her that necklace really cheap for her.” Valentina explained. “We realised Elena liked playing with her necklace, so I bought her that one to wear specially for when we’re with Elena.”

Eva nodded in understanding while Juliana smiled at the memory. Originally Elena had gone after one of her most precious items she owned – the necklace Valentina had given to her the very first time she had visited the Carvajal mansion. Valentina had seen how reluctant Juliana was to let Elena play with it, but seeing as her niece seemed to enjoy playing with it, she found an almost identical version online and bought it for her girlfriend. That way, if Elena broke it, or got slobber all over it, as she often did, she wouldn’t mind.

Elena liked Valentina’s thoughtful too. She loved to play with the necklace. The silver chain glinted in the light as it moved and the red tassels provided a different texture for her to feel. To Elena, it provided more excitement than any baby toy or Baby Shark song on YouTube could. Juliana wanted to smile at that. No matter how many things people designed for children and babies, they would always also want to play with the things designed for adults. Juliana always remembered to keep her keys far away from her niece, knowing that, judging by how much she enjoyed her necklace, Elena would be the type of baby who would love to play with her keys.

Eva smiled, “She likes it a lot.”

“But now Juliana has to wear that necklace every time we see Elena.” Valentina laughed. “Otherwise she gets annoyed.”

Juliana nodded in agreement and then smiled at Eva as she told the next anecdote.

“It’s funny, but she doesn’t seem to understand why men don’t wear necklaces.” Juliana said. “A few times I’ve seen her get confused and grab at Mateo’s neck like she wants him to be wearing one.”

“Or Guille’s neck.” Valentina added.

“Or Guille’s neck.” Juliana replied, nodding with agreement.

“She doesn’t understand why men have short hair either.” Valentina laughed. “She likes pulling on hair too, and she can’t do that with her daddy or Guille!” She turned to her niece and smiled. “Can you Elena?”

Elena responded with more incomprehensible babbles.

“Basically, Elena loves anything that is long and is attached to someone’s head or neck.” Juliana added. “But luckily I can take my necklace off.”

Eva smiled at the stories being told about her daughter. While she was devasted she couldn’t be on the other side of the glass with her daughter playing with her own necklace, she couldn’t be more thrilled that Valentina and Juliana seemed to love spending time with their niece, and that Elena loved them back.

“How’s school going, Juliana?” Eva asked.

Juliana smiled politely at Eva’s question. Though there was a part of her that knew her girlfriend’s sister was just being polite, the hint of excitement in her eyes told her Eva genuinely wanted to hear about fashion school. She searched her brain for something more than a standard answer, but nothing came.

“Good thanks,” Juliana replied. “I have my first solo fashion show in a few weeks, which is scary but exciting.”

Juliana looked down shyly. She still found it weird interacting with someone who treated her with such contempt the first time they met, and even though Eva had now realised Juliana wasn’t anything but fantastic to Valentina, it didn’t help that all her interactions with Eva had to be said while they were separated via a glass screen in the depths of a prison. And Juliana didn’t want to dwell on the fact that the reason Eva was behind bars in the first place was because she was associated with, in more ways than one, to a man who had made Juliana’s life a living hell since the moment she knew about him. 

But the child playing with the necklace on her lap was a constant reminder that there were bigger things at play here, and she had vowed to herself on the day of Eva’s sentencing to keep everything as normal as they possibly could be. For her own sake, for Valentina’s sake, for Eva’s sake and for Elena’s sake.

Eva also seemed to want to keep things peaceful between them and nodded in response to Juliana’s answer. 

“Vale told me about that last week.” She said, before smiling. “You could make men wearing necklaces fashionable.”

Juliana smiled and then nodded.

“In the fashion world, men wearing necklaces is already a thing.” She explained. “Fashion is becoming more and more genderless, just like the rest of society, and designs reflect that, so there has actually been a lot more jewellery being seen being worn by men on runways and worn by male celebrities.”

“Yeah?” Eva asked, intrigued to know where Juliana was going with this.

Juliana nodded.

“And not just necklaces…” She continued, “In the fashion world, men are wearing rings and brooches and earrings too. But the problem is that this culture shift doesn’t seem to have trickled down to the rest of society.”

Juliana paused for a moment to check Eva and Valentina were both interested in her explanation, which they were, her girlfriend providing her with a nod of encouragement.

“I bet that if you picked an average guy off of the street, the most jewellery they’d be wearing would be a typical macho chain round their neck and that would be it. The same with genderless clothes, I would say that most women have worn both dresses and trousers in their lifetimes, but god forbid a man wearing a dress! So, it becomes less about what fashion is doing and more about how our male-dominated society restricts men from choosing and embracing genderless designs. But maybe men wearing more jewellery is the first step at breaking some of those fashion gender roles down. A small step, but it could be the first step.”

Juliana took a deep breath at the end of her answer. She hadn’t realised how passionately she could talk about the subject until now. Even Elena seemed impressed, forgetting all about the necklace in her hands she was playing with. The young girl didn’t understand what her aunt had talked about, but she seemed absorbed in Juliana’s words and now stared up at her with amazement.

Out of all of them, Eva seemed the most impressed with Juliana’s answer. Juliana hoped that that wasn’t just because she had just talked to Eva more than she had ever done before, and this time, it was concerning a personal subject. Usually her conversations with her girlfriend’s sister didn’t go beyond talking about Elena or making small talk about the weather.

Juliana found herself blushing when Valentina leaned over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She glanced up to see Valentina looked positively thrilled at the fact Juliana had talked so openly and passionately about something clearly so close to her heart.

Valentina looked back to her sister, “I told you she was good.”

Eva laughed and Juliana playfully swatted her girlfriend’s hand away while trying not to go a deeper shade of red.

Elena went back to playing with the necklace as Eva spared Juliana any more embarrassment from Valentina by asking her another question. 

“So, what are you doing for your show?”

“She designed these amazing headdresses!” Valentina butted in. “And amazing dresses to go with them!”

“Val…” Juliana sighed.

“What?” Valentina asked. She was annoyed she had been told off by her girlfriend for boasting about her, but Juliana’s complaints didn’t stop her from turning to her sister and grinned. “They _are_ amazing.”

“Are you sure you’re not just saying that because you’re modelling for me, Val?”

“Val’s modelling for you?” Eva asked, leaning forward, intrigued by what Juliana just said.

Juliana looked between Valentina and her sister, “You hadn’t told her?”

“Sorry.” Valentina shrugged, before looking away nervously. “It hadn’t come up.”

Juliana laughed as she patted her girlfriend’s knee sympathetically.

“It’s ok.” She said. “I just thought you would have told your sister because you said it’s quite a big deal for you.”

“It is a big deal.” Valentina groaned. “I just hadn’t mentioned it.”

“Juliana?”

Juliana turned to look at her girlfriend’s sister, “Yeah?”

“I think Vale might be nervous.” Eva whispered with a grin. “What do you think?”

Laughing, Juliana turned to look at Valentina. The look on Valentina’s face as she kept her gaze downcast told her Eva was 100% correct. That’s why Valentina had neglected to mention it to her sister. She was _nervous_.

At that moment, Elena lifted up the necklace and dangled it in front of Juliana’s face, like she was showing it off.

“You like that, don’t you?” Juliana asked in her silly baby voice. She leant forward and started biting the air, pretending she was trying to catch the chain with her mouth.

Elena giggled loudly at her aunt’s silliness, especially when Juliana successful caught the necklace without meaning to and then swiftly let go of it in surprise. It landed in Juliana’s lap and Elena picked it up again. As Elena put it in her mouth once more, Juliana wondered if she was going to ever want to wear it again, now it had been in Elena’s mouth more times than she could count. Maybe after a good clean.

“Vale?” Eva asked.

“Yeah?”

“When are you going to have kids?” Eva replied. She looked at Juliana and then back to her sister and smiled. “Your girlfriend is a natural.”

Juliana pretended she didn’t hear those words as she lent in and rubbed her nose up against Elena’s, eliciting some giggles from the little girl happily sitting on her lap.

"I know she is!" Valentina replied happily, before saying her next words entirely to her sister. "I keep mentioning babies, but Juliana always says she's still too young." 

“You know I can still hear you guys?” Juliana asked, smiling as she looked between her girlfriend and Eva. 

Valentina put her hand on her girlfriend’s knee.

“You entertain yourself with your niece, I’m just going to talk with my sister.”

Juliana laughed at Valentina’s comment. She didn’t think she would obey her girlfriend’s words until Valentina and Eva both leaned forward in their seats, so their noses were inches apart on opposite sides of the glass and started talking rapidly to each other, suddenly switching to a language that felt like you had to be Carvajal sister to understand. Juliana could hear all the words they were saying to each other. Something about their dad, something about Guille, something about the horrible prison food and then something about the president? She heard every single word, and yet she couldn’t understand what they were actually discussing.

Juliana quickly lost track of their conversation and then was easily distracted when she felt Elena prod her cheek with her finger. Turning back to the child on her lap, Juliana pulled a stern face and didn’t hesitate to retaliate, gently poking Elena on the tip of her nose.

As the minutes wore on, Valentina and Eva continued to gossip with each other, and Elena got too tired to keep her eyes open. Juliana drew patterns in her hair as the little girl curled up on her lap and was soon fast asleep. Juliana smiled to herself. She honestly didn’t blame Elena for wanting to take a nap. Although she liked coming to visit Eva in prison, it was more for her girlfriend’s benefit than hers, and she was glad she had Elena to keep her entertained. Most of the visits ended up playing out like this one did – Valentina found hundreds of topics of conversations to talk about with her sister, while Juliana’s interactions with Eva, though always perfectly pleasant, didn’t go beyond small talk.

But Juliana felt like today she had made a little progress with her girlfriend’s sister. Their conversation hadn’t felt forced or uncomfortable, and although she would never share the same bond Valentina had with Eva, Juliana felt like she was getting to know Eva Carvajal a little bit better. There was something human behind those steely eyes.

A short while later, a prison guard appeared and told them that their allotted visitor’s hour was coming to a close.

Juliana yawned as she stood up. As they said their farewells, everyone kept their movements slow and quiet from disturbing a still sleeping Elena.

Eva and Valentina said goodbye to each other, and Valentina promised to send Eva the books and magazines she had requested, and Eva told her to write her a letter that week too.

Juliana moved Elena as close to the glass as possible as she whispered, “Bye bye Mommy.”

Eva laughed quietly and she waved them out.

......

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be completely honest - I struggled to write this fic initially, I was struggling for ideas that fitted the prompt but I finally found some inspiration and this was written in a day and a half! That means it's probably a little rough around the edges, so sorry for any mistakes!
> 
> I also had a lot more ideas that never made it into fully formed chapters, but at some point after Juliantina Appreciation Week is over, I will try to flesh these out and post them! They're a lot more fluffier than these first three chapters, I don't know how, but this ended up being a lot more serious and a lot more angsty than I had originally planned haha :)
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading, come say hi at @eleventhousands on Twitter
> 
> Also, I'm aiming to write seven fics this week (what am I doing?!) so look out for the others!
> 
> P.S. Title from 'Think About Things' by Daði Freyr, which would have been Iceland's Eurovision 2020 song had Eurovision gone ahead this year. It was my favourite from all the Eurovision songs this year, and I like to think it would have won the contest! It's a really sweet song that he wrote for his baby daughter about how he can't understand her yet, but is looking forward to knowing what she thinks about things. Although Elena isn't their child, I like to think that's how Valentina and Juliana also view their relationship with their niece.


End file.
